


Not Quite Prometheus

by hariboo



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Ark Times, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 07:14:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3601059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>really old comment fic tbh, but I like having all my fic in ~one place~</p>
    </blockquote>





	Not Quite Prometheus

**Author's Note:**

> really old comment fic tbh, but I like having all my fic in ~one place~

Each station has a media library. Factory station's media library leaves a lot to be desired. That's why there's the bartering system. The whole Ark uses it even those that say they don't. Sometimes you just need things that. Sometimes you just want things. 

When he's little he never asks his mother where and how she gets all the books she managed. Some are from the library, but they have Go-Sci's media library stamp. Sometimes Alpha's. He never questions it, because his mom brings him books home to make up for that sometimes his rations have to got Octavia. It's more than a fair trade in Bellamy's mind.

Of course she isn't always bringing books. Sometimes, often, she brings tablets with the books uploaded. Actual paper books are not rare, but not many people preferred them anymore. There are only so many around anyway and they spanned languages. Only two Bellamy ever learns to read. 

Then he gets older and understands. 

He asks his mother to stop bringing him book when he's thirteen. He tells her he'll get his own. 

He can't forget the look in her eyes when she sees and gets it. She's never really treated him like a child since he was six and Octavia came into the world, but whatever vestiges of childhood she thought still lived him stops mattering that day. Not once does he ever doubt his mother's love, but her love is never soft and gentle.

He goes through Factory's media library by the time he's fourteen. He trades with others for books (real and electronic) after that. Sometimes he's not proud of what he trades. Sometimes he cheats. He's not proud of that either. The ebooks are the easiest to get, if you have a drive and someone willing to hack the ebook file system you're set. And Nygel can get you almost anything you want even though she always smirks whenever Bellamy asks for books, which is often. He rolls his eyes each time she calls him egg-head.

Once he's in Go-Sci for some reason he forgets now and heads to their library. He sneaks in. He's fifteen. He knows he should be getting back to Octavia soon. She gets so lonely but they've exhausted every story he knows. The librarian in Go-Sci is a woman with dark, friendly eyes and a warm smile. She finds him thumbing through a thick book, hardback, some of the hardest to find on the Ark. It's a collection of Mesopotamian myths. He's mostly raised Octavia on the Roman and Greeks ones and these look good. 

He starts. "Sorry, I was--"

The librarian smiles. "It's fine. Not many people look through those."

Bellamy looks at the pile next to him -- the collection of Ancient volumes seem to brand him -- and shrugs. "I like history."

"You can learn a lot from history."

Bellamy nods, "Yes, ma'am."

She reaches of the small pile by him. "You want to take these out. Not many do, something I don't think anyone read them anymore but me."

He wants to say yes, but this is Go-Sci's library. He trades and cheats to get books from other people but he can't-- he doesn't want to lie to this woman who has offered him these book with nothing but a smile. "I can't. I'm not..." He clears his throat. "I can't."

The woman tilts her head and only smiles. "Ah, I see." She looks around at the very empty library section and takes the top book -- a thick volume on speeches -- flips it open, then strips it of it's library marker. "Between you and me then. Somebody should enjoy these books beside me."

She hands the books to him and for a second he can't take it. When his hand closes over it the black cover he's almost surprised at himself. 

"Um. Thank you."

"You look like you'd appreciate it," she says and nods towards the door. Bellamy doesn't need to be told twice. 

Later Octavia screws her nose up at the speeches, but he appeases her with a couple of the myths he remembers from his quick skimming. 

The next time he makes it to Go-Sci's library there's a new librarian, a grouchy man, who scowls at him and Bellamy frowns. This time he doesn't feel bad about when he sneaks out with a book on myths. Octavia loves them.


End file.
